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Gender Issues and Economic Development

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Association for Evolutionary Economics & International Association for Feminist Economics
  • Chair: Mary V. Wrenn, University of West England

Economic Capacity Building and the Instrumental Promotion of Shared Ideologies, Theories and Concepts in Africa

Howard Stein
,
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Abstract

Post-war development economics drew broadly from an array of different theoretical approaches, including theorizing from the south. Academic economists and policy makers in African countries openly and critically debated alternative possibilities from different theoretical traditions. As the multi-paradigmatic approach was under assault, the great development economist Albert Hirschman reminded us, in 1981, that this transcendence beyond monoeconomics arose out of the “unprecedented discredit of orthodox economics” from within the economics establishment following the Great Depression and that the reassertion of neoclassical economics was somewhat predictable. The unevenness of the patterns of development provided the opening for the wholesale attack on development economics. Following the crises of the universities in the 1980s, economics departments on the African continent were reconstituted and reshaped in the image of the monoeconomics originating from the north with its emphasis on a single theoretical paradigm aimed, in part, at supporting structural adjustment policies the donor imposed neoliberal economic strategies introduced into Africa from the 1980s. Working closely with donors, the African Economic Research Consortium, based in Nairobi and founded in 1988, played a key role in transforming the economics profession in Africa. The paper will map out the institutional dynamics underlying the capacity building efforts in reconstructing economic departments and government agencies in African countries. By way of conclusion, the paper will examine the consequences of the domination of neoclassical economics and its lack of realism. The tools at the disposal of African mainstream economists today have delimited their capacity to comprehend the structural and institutional challenges underlying the dynamics of development; these challenges have become even more acute as many African countries have found themselves at the bottom of the global supply chain where they are subject to the vicissitudes of commodity markets.

Inequality, Vested Interests, and Industrial Development: A Comparison of ISI Policy in Mexico and South Korea

Kellin Chandler Stanfield
,
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Sooyoung Lee
,
Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Abstract

We investigate disparity as a determinant of the relative success from pursuing import substitution industrialization (ISI) policy using the examples of two formerly under-developed countries, Mexico and South Korea. The purpose of ISI policy is to build incrementally the domestic production capability from light industries to heavy industries by substituting selectively imported materials with domestic products. The progression of ISI policy in South Korea successfully allowed the country to become globally competitive in the manufacturing of automobiles and sophisticated electronic products. In Mexico, on the other hand, the progression of ISI implementation inadequately moved up the production chain before being aborted abruptly. The differential progression of ISI policy had a substantial effect on the structural development of the two countries. We hypothesize that the pattern of disparity, including the distribution of power, at the inception of ISI policy and the evolution of the pattern of disparity affected the pursuit of ISI policy in each nation. ISI began in Mexico during the wake of the global depression in the 1930s; however, significant landed and transnational capital interests impeded the incremental selective progression of ISI, ultimately resulting in the premature abandonment of ISI policy. On the other hand, in the wake of the Korean War in the 1950s, the strong position of military rule in South Korea was conducive to the successful progression of ISI policy and the development of national industrial capital interests.

Neoliberalism and Its Failures in Argentina

Emilia Ormaechea
,
National University of Litoral

Abstract

After the 1970 crisis, neoliberalism became the dominant approach to economic development throughout the world. As a region faced with developmental challenges, Latin America has also been affected by the pervasiveness and dominance of neoliberal policies. Rooted in neoclassical theory, neoliberalism displaced Latin American contributions for development that predominated during the postwar period, which highlighted the importance of the state to direct an industrialization strategy that allows peripheral economies to develop. In the case of Argentina, neoliberalism was supposed to overcome structural heterogeneity and economic unbalances inherited from the state-led industrialization through policies oriented to liberalize the economy and reduce the state. However, contrary to these suppositions, neoliberalism tended to reinforce the peripheral positioning of Argentina in the global economy, as well as it deepened social and economic inequalities.

The Role of the State in Women’s Enterprise Development: Comparing Gulf Countries

Tonia Warnecke
,
Rollins College
Melissa Langworthy
,
Ladysmith

Abstract

Female entrepreneurship has exploded in Gulf countries in recent years. Rights-based agendas spread by international organizations (e.g., the World Bank) have encouraged the economic inclusion of women through enterprise on the basis of neoliberal and market-based logic, largely highlighting entrepreneurship’s potential for bolstering economic growth rather than a more equal economic society (Berglund et al. 2018). Often, the implicit (and faulty) assumption is that economic growth through entrepreneurship also reduces poverty (DeJaeghere and Baxter 2014) and promotes women’s economic inclusion (Sa’ar 2016). This manifestation of neoliberalism has been criticized for creating an idealized “transnational business feminism” (Roberts 2015) and ignoring many of the financial, economic, and social policies that unduly impact female entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship promotion among rentier states, however, is largely motivated by a need for economic diversification and job creation that extends neoliberal premises of individual responsibility and reduces the demands on the extended state apparatus. Rentier states are characterized by authoritative governmental, economic, and social structures leading to outcomes (e.g. underdevelopment in the private sector) that do not follow classical neoliberal orientations. Still, the relationship between enterprise and state is being redefined. Female entrepreneurship promotion then requires not only a revision of traditional gender contracts but an adjustment in the relationship between state and citizen. In such environments, it is critical to investigate the role of the state in ensuring enabling and inclusive business ecosystems for women. While studies examining gender and state policies in one or two Gulf countries are available (Langworthy and Warnecke 2020; Ennis 2019) a comprehensive case study of women’s entrepreneurship development within the non-liberal Gulf context has not yet been undertaken.

Capitalist Development in Brazil: Labor and Gender Perspectives

Lygia Sabbag Fares
,
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

Abstract

Capitalism shapes labor relations according to its needs, being adapted to structural imperatives, as well as to the historical and cultural circumstances of a given place and time. Discrimination against individuals based on criteria of class, race and sex predates capitalism. However, the capitalist production system justifies workers’ position in the labor market based on their physical characteristics, which are perceived as hierarchical elements and used to alleviate social tensions and naturalize social injustices such as underemployment, unemployment, wage differences between whites and blacks and men and women. This research investigates gender relations in the capitalist development process in Brazil. It undertakes a historical approach and aims to understand the structure of these relations and their impacts on Brazilian development, on the labor market and for women, accounting for its economic and social consequences. Labor market sexual segmentation conducts the research. The research question concerns the role of the heterogeneous forms of women’s insertion in the labor market (work at home, intermittent work, part-time work, precarious work, self-employment, domestic work) and non-insertion (“choice” for being housewife) in the capitalist system in general and the specificities of it in the underdeveloped Brazilian capitalism. The research aims to investigate the following general questions: Does the heterogeneity of insertion of women in the labor market increase gendered exploitation? How does it impact white and black women? What is the role of non- insertion (housewife) of a portion of women in the labor market for the capitalist system? What is the particularity of both the heterogeneity of insertions and the self-exclusion of women in the labor market, due to gender roles, in Brazilian underdeveloped capitalism?
JEL Classifications
  • B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches
  • O2 - Development Planning and Policy